Chapter 1.07 kajsemnc. No updates, but still a better love story than Twilight

So that is what Armos planned to do tomorrow. Getting up at dawn would give him an hour and a half to wander around the city before reporting to work at the docks. If the ships were press ganging, or recruiting, or whatever, the news would certainly be all over the the local markets. News of any threat or opportunity tended to propagate rapidly in the seedier sections of Barakat. If the ships were forcefully recruiting, that would count as both. Getting accurate information about the ships actual purpose and destination would be much more difficult.

Chapter 1.06 Still Afloat

Armos resolved to find out more about these ships; perhaps they could provide him the gateway to bigger and better things. Even if life aboard the ships were no better than life on the decks, ships go places. New places could be bigger opportunities. Sure, he could haul bags of grain his whole life like Kilgar did, but what kind of life was that? If there was a chance that these ships could be the gateway to a new land, it was worth looking into.

Chapter 1.05 Horizons

What would life be like on a ship? Armos had no idea. Really, he knew very little about life beyond the jungle and the wharves, and ships definitely counted as beyond that. He didn't know where they were going, what they would do when they got there, and if they would ever return to Barakat. There was so much to know, so much to potentially do aboard these ships. Perhaps Kilgar was also wrong about the state of life on these ships, had he ever been on one? Doubtful, as near as Armos could tell, Kilgar had never done anything besides hauling things from ships to warehouses and warehouses to ships. What did he know?

Chapter 1.04 This Could Use Direction

The ships sailed to within two hundred feet of the docks. Armos watched them move in slowly over the rest of his shift on the docks.Throughout this time, the flurry of small messenger boats never abated. As the sun made it's way towards the horizon, Armos followed a parallel path towards his current lodgings, not far from the docks. Today, the path was filled with gawkers, mostly labourers and small time shopkeepers, the higher class citizens of the city would take a boat down one of the rivers to take a look.

Chapter 1.03 Docking Points

"Well, that depends if you like sailing or not, and if they are recruiting or not" Kilgar replied "But I reckon once they dock any man that gets caught out is likely to find himself press-ganged."

"Press-ganged?" Armos asked.

"Yeah." Came the reply "Pressed into service as a sailor. Which means a lot of brute labour. Like hauling stuff up and down the docks, except on a ship and helped along with a whip. Most people prefer to stay home than risk it." Armos considered that. Life as a dock labourer was safe, if hard and boring.

Chapter 1.02 When Things Occur

Which is what he was doing when the fleet of warships sailed into Barakat. Armos had seen a few warships dock in Barakat in his time here, but never more than two or three at a time. And these ships ranged in size from small escort boats to enormous galleons. As they got closer, Armos counted sixteen of them all told, carrying an amazing amount of men and equipment. As they sailed closer, Armos noticed several ships flying the flag of the city go out to meet them.

"Should we be concerned about them?" Armos asked the man helping him carry a sack of grain up the docks to be loaded up to a cargo ship. The man, Kilgar, claimed to have been working these docks for fifteen years, and had several scars on his face that had purportedly come from knife fights from the time he press ganged into joining a pirate ship.

Chapter 1.01 Chaos n' Stuff

The better nature of chaos is opportunity, and this is what had drawn Armos to the city. Originally from the wilderness in between cities, an unfortunate series of events had forced him to leave the tribe. Knowing little of the outside world, Barakat was one of the few cities whose reputation had penetrated into the jungle. Although his accent still marked him as an outsider, Armos had figured Barakat would provide the best chance to build something more. It had taken him three weeks to journey to Barakat, and within three days of arriving he had found himself hauling merchandise up and down the wharfs.